And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
(John 14:16-18 NKJ)

Thursday, February 03, 2011

NewsMax Lies

Recently NewsMax has resumed bombardment of my e-mail boxes with their propaganda. Propaganda has come to have a negative connotation in our society, even though the word itself is positive. Certainly as I am bombarded with NewsMax propaganda I am left with the negative association that has become common today.

Some years ago we signed up with NewsMax to receive a very worthy newsletter: The Blaylock Report. However, NewsMax also pulled some trickery on my wife (and many others). From that time we stopped trusting NewsMax. Of course, things like what I received in my e-mail today continue to reinforce our distrust of this pretender to the role of a defender of liberty and morality.

Today’s e-mail reminded me of the prophets of old who decried the same kinds of lies and thievery among the Old Testament people. One specific quote came to my mind:

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress the poor, Who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands, "Bring wine, let us drink!" (Amos 4:1 NKJV)

The e-mail was from the President and CEO of Newsmax Media. In it he claimed to have sent a video to me the previous week and had noticed that I had not viewed it.

What?!!! How could he know whether or not I had viewed the video? I checked the link to see whether a person would have to give an e-mail address or other identification in order to view the video. Nope. So I called customer service to ask. Nope, he lied. The poor customer service lady was required to try to cover for his lie, but he lied.

The video is also loaded with lies and false promises.

How often today do we hear that something will be given “ABSOLUTELY FREE” if only we will call this number watch this video or whatever. Then, the offer is proclaimed to have a shipping fee, or is connected with a subscription to a newsletter, or is a “no risk” trial offer?

This is false advertising. This is raw deception. Even with the “no risk” offer, such as this one, a payment is required, which allows the seller to use our money interest free.

But this is not the ultimate issue of concern regarding this e-mail and what is contained in the video to which it links. The video has promises that are not kept, promises to tell about two amazing investment opportunities but those are not actually revealed. But this, too, is minor contrasted to what is forthrightly promoted.

Now most people are unlikely to respond to this with this concern. Most people will likely respond with desire to be included in what is promoted. But to this the Lord declares:

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress the poor, Who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands, "Bring wine, let us drink!" (Amos 4:1)

The video tells how we can learn how to profit from the misery that the international bankers, the greedy controllers of the economy, and the corrupt politicians are causing. It tells how we can learn to imitate the ways of those who are destroying the great heritage of America and are taking over America and the world’s nations through economic manipulation.

The video, which can be viewed here, follows the typical way of promoters of hype. The video is set up so that you have no control. You cannot fast forward or back up or pause. If you try to leave the web site it pops us and makes you click more buttons. When you refuse to stay, it gives you another page with the information in page format. Perhaps this is good, as at least one can examine it better.

From that page, here is what is stated regarding the third stock option, one of the two that are promised but not actually revealed without signing up for the trial subscription.

2011 Guaranteed Dividend Stock #3:
A Wall Street Bank Everyone Hates!

My mantra of being greedy when others are fearful lets me recommend another unlikely stock for 2011, one of America's biggest banks and one of the biggest bailed out by the federal government.

The current bogeyman of the Obama administration is Wall Street money center banks like this one. Temporarily, this would seem to be a bad investment.

However, in 2010, this administration also attacked Goldman Sachs, British Petroleum, Berkshire Hathaway, and Johnson & Johnson. All four stocks took turns being the bogeyman, and all four are up HUGE since being attacked. This company is just the latest "villain" for the White House.

Just a few years ago, this stock was selling for close to $60 a share. Today you can buy shares for pennies on the dollar — pretty close to what it was selling for in the early 1990s and 11% off of its tangible book value of all its intangible assets.

In plain English, you are buying it for a price less than you would pay if you started a bank from scratch.

And you get all the rest of it — the card services, global corporate banking, global markets, and wealth management businesses — for free.

One last thing: Hedge fund superstar John Paulson, the man who made $20 billion on the subprime debacle is betting HUGE on this stock. His fund has been profitable in 13 of the past 14 years, including an almost 40% gain in 2008.

He has taken his largest equity position in this company's common shares, buying 168 million shares.

I think this stock is a slam-dunk for 2011 . . . and I'll tell you all about it in my brand-new special report, The Best Dividend Machine Stocks for 2011.

Just in case you read past it without noticing, here is the key point again:

My mantra of being greedy when others are fearful lets me recommend another unlikely stock for 2011, one of America's biggest banks and one of the biggest bailed out by the federal government.

Now, NewsMax claims to oppose the bailout and the stimulus spending bill and the raping of people through health care. They promote newsletters for doctors who speak against big pharmaceutical promotion of drugs as the answer for all problems. They promote awareness of the tea party movement and the cry to stand up for what is right and to oppose the big government and big business pillaging of the people and their earnings and of the trampling of the Constitution.

And here they promote investing in the very things that they claim to oppose. They promote profiting from the big drug pushers called health care. They promote profiting from the foreclosure of homes. This mindset is especially promoted in another e-mail sent a few days ago, the first portion of which can be seen below:

And again from the video:

My mantra of being greedy when others are fearful lets me recommend another unlikely stock for 2011, one of America's biggest banks and one of the biggest bailed out by the federal government.

And where is the federal government getting this money to bail out big banks and to give money away in the trillions of dollars? The government swindlers are borrowing the money from the international bankers who own the Federal Reserve. They are borrowing this money in our names. They are stealing this money from you and from me and from all of the future generations who will be bankrupted by this action.

So why should we not follow the advice to get rich from other people’s loss and misery? Why should we not take advantage of the situation and profit from it just as the big boys are doing? Why should we be left behind to suffer the loss?

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress the poor, Who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands, "Bring wine, let us drink!" The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: "Behold, the days shall come upon you When He will take you away with fishhooks, And your posterity with fishhooks. You will go out through broken walls, Each one straight ahead of her, And you will be cast into Harmon," Says the Lord. (Amos 4:1-3 NKJV)

Is the Lord blind? Does He not see how we join with the evil ways of the world? Were the prophecies of old only concerning the greedy of those times?

More importantly, is this really the way that we want to act? Do we really want to imitate those who take advantage of others unfairly? Is greed the way to happiness? Or is the way to true happiness the way of contentment and of defending the poor and the widows and the fatherless and the oppressed?

Ultimately it comes down to who and what one counts as God. In whom and in what does one trust and rely? In whom and what does one find security and peace and satisfaction? How one answers these matters determines one’s affinity to the ways promoted in the above propaganda.

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:24-34)

About Me

I am an Evangelical Lutheran pastor who earns his living as an arborist. I own my own small tree company, All Tree, and operate in Wichita, KS. I list Arborist before Pastor under Occupation because I earn my living as an arborist but my vocation is that of Pastor. I am an arborist because I take care of trees, but I am a pastor because proclaiming the Gospel of Christ crucified is my life. I can choose to stop trimming trees, but to stop proclaiming the Gospel would be to stop breathing.
Web sites for business and congregation are:
[All Tree];
[Bride of Christ ELC]